Peace
It was pomp, dancing and feasting at the Rugus area on the shores of Lake Baringo as three warring communities celebrated peace and tranquility brought about by wildlife conservation.
The erstwhile warring neighbors drawn from the Tugen, Ilchamus and Pokot communities converged at Ruko Community Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate their peace and success brought in 2004 through conservation effort pioneered by Northern Rangeland Trust.
One after the other, the villagers from Rugus and Komolion which forms the acronym Ruko, attested to the peace and the gains they’ve reaped in bursaries and livelihood. Mzee Erengenya Lemaitano who pioneered the initiative said he was castigated by the community claiming he was giving away their land.
“We faced resistance, but now we have seen the animals don’t eat our land nor our livestock, now we are reaping from the initiative, we have educated our children through Ruko, we have seen the animals and we are happy,” said the Mzee.
A baby giraffe, a symbol of peace, seems to be keenly following the proceedings during the celebration of peace and Development among the warring Tugen and Pokot communities, brought by wildlife conservation in Ruko Conservancy, Baringo South.
Mzee lectured the politicians saying the land cannot be built through propaganda and asked the leaders to help build the conservancy. He expressed on need to generate new solutions for fishermen of Lake Baringo since the wood used to build Kaldich, traditional rafters used for fishing, is fast facing extinction.
Grace Lepene from the Pokot community also attested to the benefits the community has reaped from the conservancy saying they have milked money from the giraffes with their children getting bursaries for education.
“The camera trap initiative has also put monies in our pockets and for this reason we should protect these animals,” said Mrs. Lepene on the conservancy’s initiative to put camera traps at strategic location and pay the community on each animal spotted as a way to motivate them to protect them.
Jarso Gwalicha, a peace ambassador with from Isiolo said it was due to the wildlife that the Ilchamus and the Pokot communities are living in peace and urged them to keep peace to benefit from wildlife.
The conservancy manager Rebecca Jepchumba hailing from the community informed that the facility has employed 17 rangers and trained them at the Manyani KWS training school and also initiated a ujuzi manyatani to train local youth on technical skills like capentry, masonry and dress making.
“We recently started a preschool that has 153 children, we don’t know where they’ll proceed for primary level but we are hopeful that we will come up with a solution together with our leaders,” said Jepchumba.
Alloyce Naitira of the Nothern Rangelands Trust (NRT) that is umbrella that manages community conservancy said they bring the expertise to the conservancy or link them up with the experts as they involve the community and the government to make the conservancy story a successful one.
Residents drawn from Rugus and Komolion in Baringo South and Tiaty East among them their members of parliament and security team marvel at a baby giraffe upon arriving at Ruko conservancy to celebrate peace and development brought about by the conservancy.
Ian Craig, founder of NRT marveled at the success with nostalgia of how he faced resistance in the beginning but was happy that the epic conservation journey has silenced the guns as he likened the area to a lawless land previously. ” I believe the villagers that went to Tanzania for benchmarking have seen that what we have here is just the beginning, we can go ten times where we are today,” said Ian who is also associated with Lewa Consevancy’s success.
He warned the conservancy members and the community to be wary of criminal elements likely to infiltrate the conservancy and erode the gains made, even as he retires, he promised to be available for counsel. `County Government represented by Agriculture CEC Risper Chepkong’a and Tourism Chief Officer Nancy Korir preached the gospel of environment conservation saying Baringo is a unique county with four lakes, namely Baringo, Bogoria, Kamnarok and 94.
Kenya Wildlife Service led by Senior Assistant Director in charge of Central Rift Conservation area Joseph Lagacha termed Ruko as the best model of community conservancy and promised to work with all stakeholders to ensure its success. “We are stocking it with giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck with intention to have high number of animals and improve tourism to bring in more returns to the community,” said Lagacha.
Her Baringo counterpart Grace Wendot pledged to protect the animals and urged the residents to help in the cause in line with KWS’s campaign dubbed ‘protect your wealth’ since wildlife is wealth to everyone. Area Deputy County Commissioner Samuel Gichohi warned against increased charcoal burning saying it will erode the wildlife conservation efforts even as he promised to lead in protecting the wildlife and the newfound peace.
Area politicians hailed the Ruko initiative for the peaceful coexistence and opportunities for the previously warring communities that actively practiced cattle rustling. Silale MCA Clement Lomaringoria urged the community to guard the peace jealously and avoid any threat to it. He particularly called on the Pokot community not to use guns while grazing their livestock in their neighbour’s territory.
Tiaty Member of Parliament William Kamket said wildlife conservation was a source of peace and said despite Turkanas being their perennial enemies, they would sing a song praising the giraffe in the Turkana dialect. He called on the residents to protect the wildlife even as he called for more conservancies to be established in the area as an approach to end cattle rustling and banditry and pledged support to the conservation efforts.
“We need to have more conservancies in Loyamorok, Mukutani and the Kerio Valley belt to foster peace, it’s not worth to fight over boundaries, it doesn’t help anyone, we will have many benefits like education, employment and peace,” said the legislator.
Residents drawn from Rugus and Komolion in Baringo South and Tiaty East celebrate with song and dance during a feat for peace and development brought about by wildlife conservation of Ruko Conservancy.
Same sentiments were shared by his host Charles Kamuren who said it was unfathomable that the two communities were celebrating peace heaping praise on NRT for the initiative. He said that the peace realized has started to bring development as he recently put up two classrooms in Rugus and more were to follow even as children gain education through bursaries.
“I am suggesting to my counterpart Kamket we organize for a feast and singing in Mukutani as a way to bring our two conflicting communities together,” said Kamuren. He called on NRT to put up a secondary school in the area saying education will end early marriages and also the distance covered as the nearest schools were in Kiserian and Tangulbei which is over 80 kilometers apart.
The event was marked by stocking of the conservancy with eight endangered Rothschild giraffe to bring the population to 28, further enrich it with wildlife. Save Giraffe Now which funded the relocation of giraffes from Krugger Farm in Uasin Gishu at a cost of Sh10 million through Fiona Sandeman promised to continue partnering with the Conservancy.
Rothschild also known as Baringo Giraffe is unique to Baringo in Kenya and its population is 1400 globally, making it to be classified as endangered.